Michael Dean James, 27, was sentenced to 12½ years in prison, with 1 ½ years probation Thursday, Aug. 22, in Whatcom County Superior Court. James pleaded guilty to 14 felonies related to the robberies on Feb. 28.

“We had practically the entire Bellingham Police detective unit there. There were a lot of detectives involved, a lot of man hours and a lot of time. It was an exhaustive investigation, and there was quite the community impact and a lot of resources devoted toward catching this guy,” Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Erik Sigmar told The Bellingham Herald.

Sigmar said James also will be required to pay $5,583 in restitution. No victims spoke at the sentencing, but Sigmar said they told him it was a traumatic experience for them to be “confronted with a masked man with a knife while working behind a desk in an isolated setting late at night.”

Both Willard’s and Morris’s trials are tentatively scheduled for Oct. 7.

After their arrests, Bellingham police looked at similarities between the other robberies that had occurred in recent weeks, which led them to believe James had committed 11 others between Jan. 16 and Feb. 7.